He learned that he should go his full distance not more than three times a week, and that, contrary to his impression, sprinting should receive a fair share of attention. In the end, Gerald worked out a table for his guidance as follows:
Monday, three-quarters of a mile at a fair speed.
Tuesday, a fairly fast half, followed by a few sprints of from fifty to a hundred yards.
Wednesday, a steady mile and a quarter.
Thursday, a fast half, a rest, and an easy three-quarters.
Friday, sprinting, ranging from a hundred to four hundred and forty yards.
Saturday, a mile and a half at a jog, finishing the last hundred at a sprint.
As, said the book, endurance was the thing to work for, by running over his distance, the miler would strengthen heart, lungs, and muscles, and also learn to regulate his breathing, and so accumulate sufficient reserve energy to enable him to increase his speed in the last one or two hundred yards of his race.
The subject of diet puzzled Gerald a good deal, for his authority recommended things which Gerald could not obtain at commons away from a training table. But in the end he established a diet list for himself; and, for fear he might forget what was on it, carried a copy with him at all times. For breakfast he allowed himself one chop, four ounces of steak or two soft-boiled eggs, one baked potato, toast or bread, milk, apple sauce, or prunes. No cream or sugar.
For dinner, soup, roast beef, lamb, mutton, or fowl, potatoes if not fried, vegetables, boiled rice, plain pudding or ice-cream, milk, toast or bread, fruit.